Brotherhood gone bonkers 7
by Aqua111
Summary: Spectre and Dimitri are handcuffed together, Vector gets stuck in a ball of bracelets and Athair and Charmy play Santa Claus in Haven.


**Brotherhood gone bonkers 7**

"Locke, do you ever go to sleep? It's 4 am if you haven't noticed yet."

Sabre stood in the doorframe, arms crossed and tried to give his voice a reproachful sound but it only happened to be a tired murmur.

"Same counts for you", Locke replied without looking up from his work. "Why are you still awake if you know it's 4 am and think everyone should sleep at that time?"

"Because I'm an old man and have a weak bladder."

Locke raised his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah? Then I guess Spectre must be sleeping on the toilet. I never saw him sleeping there though. Just admit it; you want to hover over me like a helicopter again."

"Spectre wears diapers", Sabre simply answered, turned around and left the room.

Locke blinked in confusion for a few seconds then quickly shook his head to get that picture out of his mind.

Morning, half past nine, in Haven. There we will meet Athair on an early sugar rush, Thunderhawk demolishing the coffee machine because he still doesn't know the anti-Spectre-code to activate it, Sojourner watching Powerpuff Girls in the surveillance room but quickly switching to porn whenever someone enters the room, Spectre wondering why Sabre has slept in in the toilet and Locke is nowhere to be found outside of his lab.

Thunderhawk stomped through the corridors, the pitiful looking coffee machine under his arm. He tried to ignore Athair watering the carpet. Heck, that lunatic Echidna once had mowed the carpet so why shouldn't he also water it in return?

"Locke this thing is crap. You need something better to prevent Spectre from using it", he started complaining when he entered the lab but then stopped and put on a lightly surprised frown. "Why are you sleeping on a huge pile of ... bracelets?"

Locke rubbed his eyes and with a groan slid off the pile.

"Must have dozed off while checking the last few of them."

"But ... what are those good for?" Thunderhawk asked and tried to get as much space as possible between him and the bracelets. Things in Locke's lab no matter how harmless they looked tended to blow up, attack you, switch your body or drive Spectre insane.

"These work like Chaos syphons. Small, unsuspicious and no one would ever think they might be the reason for a power loss although they actually are strong enough to make Enerjak weak as a kitten. And that's exactly what I want to use it for - banning the threat of Enerjak."

Thunderhawk tried to remember a dangerous Dimitri but could only picture him dancing Gangnam style with the rest of the Legion.

"Is that really necessary? Dimitri has been harmless for quite a long time already."

"We can never know when the Enerjak inside of him is breaking through again."

"And ... why so many of them?"

"Prototypes. All running on slightly different frequencies and vary in the ways they have been designed. I still need to test it on someone. I first thought about testing it on us."

Thunderhawk made one more step back.

"But then I thought, what if they already work from the beginning", Locke continued. "It would make us vulnerable as long as we aren't able to get these things off."

"Well, it might also be a good idea to ask the others what they think about your newest invention."

"The best to test this on might actually be Dimitri", Spectre said turning one of the bracelets between his fingers.

"Dimitri? Don't you think he might expect a trap when one of us walks up to him like 'Oh hi, there's a gift from us'?" Thunderhawk asked.

"What if Athair does it?" Sabre suggested. "The Legionnaires would accept a present from him even if they clearly see there's a fuse cord hanging out of it - just because Athair is that way and he never actually wants to harm anyone no matter what he does."

Sojourner shook his head. "Athair will be so suspiciously unsuspicious that even the dumbest Legionnaire will see there's something fishy."

"I will do it."

The other Brotherhood members stared at Spectre as if he had gone insane.

"From you he will accept it even less", Thunderhawk said.

"I will think about something and if nothing else helps force it onto his wrist. Unnecessary violence always has been one of my specialities. So what happens to the other prototypes?"

"I want to give some of them to Remington for now", Locke replied. "Either he can use them for protecting the city when something chaos based attacks or he can help us find more powerful guinea pigs."

When the heavy box was shoved into his arms Knuckles immediately lost balance and toppled forward.

"Dad, what on Mobius is in these boxes?" he asked.

"A few hundred bracelets and there are still a lot more in my lab."

"Wait, so you called us to help you deliver ... bracelets to Remington?"

"Power syphons shaped like bracelets to be exact."

"But why so many of them?" Knuckles asked while he and Espio lifted up one of the heavy boxes together and shoved it into Mighty's arms - the third box the armadillo was currently carrying.

Locke rubbed the back of his head. He actually never needed so many different prototypes.

"To be honest, I was bored last night."

"Bored?" Vector asked and sat down on top of a box. "Dude, have you ever thought about subscribing to a porn website?" He was slapped by Knuckles.

"Hearing that is nothing new to me. Sabre once suggested I should read porn magazines."

Knuckles nearly dropped the box on Espio's feet.

"Grandfather really told you to do that?"

"He didn't just tell it - he let some magazines fall into my lap..."

"Well, good that little Knux isn't living in Haven yet though I sometimes think he could need a lesson or two from these magazines as well", Vector chuckled which earned him another slap – harder this time.

Spectre waited in the city. He didn't feel like walking through a whole Legion camp and then also trying to get out of it again as soon as Dimitri had found out his powers were missing but thank goodness he knew where the Legion leader's jazz dance lessons took place. He sighed deeply when he saw Dimitri with his gymnastic leggings, fuzzy baby blue legwarmers and headband walking out onto the street. Those accessories looked already ridiculous 30 years ago when they still were in, let alone they were only worn by girls.

"Dimitri, do you have a second?"

Spectre tried to make his voice sound as if he was still talking to the lord of the Dark Legion and not an 80s aerobic girl.

"But really only a second, my little fluffy-wuffy. I need to get out of this sweaty stuff and into my shiny armour quickly. In a few minutes we have this big, big speech to the people of Echidnaopolis again. Oh why are they so stubborn and don't join our group without us needing to convince them over and over again? Shall we tell them we have cookies? What do you mean, sweet cheeks?"

Fluffy-wuffy... Sweet cheeks... Spectre bared his teeth and it needed all of his self-control not to blast Dimitri through the next wall. Unlike the Guardian Dimitri sounded as if he was talking to a three year old and Spectre had the feeling he did that on purpose. He also didn't stop walking so Spectre had to run after him if he really wanted to give him that damn bracelet. Was Locke serious when he talked about the threat Enerjak could be again? Before that was happening Robotnik would dress up as Santa Claus and give presents to little hedgehogs. But now that he had offered to give Dimitri that bracelet he didn't want to return to Haven as long as that ancient Echidna wasn't wearing it around his wrist.

"Yes, it doesn't need more than a few seconds. Look, I have these bracelets and Athair thought it was a nice idea if everyone in the family wore them." Mentioning it was Athair's idea was always good to make a sudden present look less suspicious.

Still carrying on walking Dimitri carefully eyed the bracelet Spectre was holding in front of his nose as if he expected it to explode.

"The whole family? Well, there are more you could call family members in the Legion so why haven't you brought more?"

"I wanted to ask the head of the Legion first before we walk into the base and wildly throw around trinkets. Locke has made enough to also provide Kragok, Lien-Da, Moritori, heck, absolutely every little Grandmaster bastard all of you ever have fathered."

"And why aren't you wearing one?"

Spectre rolled his eyes, got out a second bracelet he had taken with him, just in case, and put it around his wrist.

"Here, are you happy now?"

Maybe it was a stupid idea blocking his own Chaos force but he could ask Locke how to take that thing off as soon as he was back in Haven and how much danger could he expect from Dimitri anyways. Maybe from the other Legionnaires but while they were close to the camp they were still outside. Impatiently he waggled the bracelet before Dimitri's eyes.

"Will you take it now or shall I tell Athair you didn't want it?"

Dimitri let out a nasally sigh.

"Okay, I'll take it. But only if you are a sweetheart now and let uncle Dimitri take care of his business."

"Yes, uncle Dimitri..." Spectre snarled, his eyes narrowed. His Chaos force might have been of no use at the moment but he still could have bashed the Grandmaster's head against the next wall. He didn't give in to his desire though, turned around and started walking away, torturing Dimitri in his head only.

Puzzled Remington stared at the many boxes full of bracelets.

"No offense, Knuckles, but something tells me that one of the Guardians could need an occupational therapy. Why did Locke make several hundred bracelets? Does he think he's in a jewellery mass production company?"

"He was ... bored I guess", Knuckles said.

"And now he's sending them all to me. Why?"

"He found out how much you fancy gay girly accessories and would love to see you carrying as much of them as possible", Vector said.

Espio gave him a kick under the table and replied, "From what I know they can block Chaos energy and he needs someone to help him test them."

"Well, there's only one little problem. Aside of the Guardians and Enerjak I don't know too many people who can control the Chaos force."

While the others were still pondering how and where to test the bracelets, Vector grabbed some of them to put them under closer investigation. A few could be opened so he could have a look inside to see what made them ticking, sweet. Maybe those few worked like a remote to control the rest of them to do something more interesting than lying around like ... well, like bracelets. Or they would all blow up which would stop the discussion of what to do with them before it could get even more boring.

"Stop playing around with that and put it down again", Espio said. "Even Charmy knows better than you that you shouldn't play with Guardian technology."

"Heck, those things are boring. What could possibly go wrong with them?"

He continued picking it with the paper clip he had found on Remington's desk.

"See? It made click a few times already and nothing ever happened."

"They are moving..." Remington slowly said.

The boxes had started rattling; the few bracelets lying outside slowly crept over the desk.

"Get down!" Knuckles shouted.

Only a second later the boxes burst open and several hundred bracelets were flying towards Vector.

Spectre wanted to proceed walking away but at first a strange force had slowed him down, slowly dragged him backwards and then all out of sudden he was jerked back as if someone had grabbed his left wrist where the bracelet was and threw him towards the Legion camp again. For a split second he could see Dimitri being jerked forward then the two Echidnas crashed into each other.

"Stop kicking my face, you bastard!"

"At least you only have feet in your face. I have your bum in mine. Now tell me what's worse."

"Get off me!"

One of the Legion guards opened a door and stepped outside.

"Lord Dimitri? I heard voices outside and wanted to see if..." He stopped and with open mouth stared at the pile of wrestling Echidnas. "I guess I don't even want to know." With that he ran back into the fortress and quickly slammed the door shut.

Meanwhile the two had managed to at least sit upright and tried to tear their bracelets apart but to no avail. It was like they had been melted together.

"Oh I'm going to kill that Locke", Spectre growled.

"Great, and what shall I do now?" Dimitri muttered. "My speech will look ridiculous when I keep holding hands with a Guardian the whole time."

"Well, that's your problem then because I'm not going to drag you through Haven like a puppy dog to have Locke fix that."

As much as Spectre wanted to get away from Dimitri he for sure was not going back to Haven with him and give the others, especially Sojourner and Thunderhawk, the chance to mock at him.

"And you think I would walk through the Legion base hand in hand with you? No way. There has to be someone else who could help us."

The Guardians were flabbergasted when Knuckles and half of his crew were carrying something in that looked more or less like modern art - a ball of bracelets tightly locked together with a crocodile's jaws looking out of it. Behind them Charmy was flying and it looked as if he hardly could suppress his laughter while the others rather had annoyed expressions on their faces. They dropped their strange load in the middle of the corridor.

"Ouch!" the ball of bracelets muttered.

"Dad, we could really need your help there", Knuckles said. "I think Vector activated something on one of the bracelets and now they are stuck together as if they are strong magnets. Not even Mighty could break them."

"He must have triggered a chain reaction", Locke said and scratched the back of his head. "I can try to get them loose but that might need a while. And yes, they are pretty sturdy. They were built to withstand Enerjak after all."

"Wait, if that caused a chain reaction, do you think Spectre's bracelets were affected too?" Sojourner asked worriedly. If the dark Guardian had already delivered them to Dimitri only the Legion would have to bother about that but no one wanted to have a furious Spectre who had been glued to something strongly magnetic for hours near them. Blocked Chaos force or not, Spectre was still dangerous enough without it.

"That's what we won't know until he blasts into Haven", Sabre said.

Thunderhawk gave the ball of bracelets a kick.

"Can't someone lock that damn croc away for good? As if it wasn't enough already to experience Spectre on a sugar and caffeine rush, no, now that idiot also has to turn something Spectre was carrying into a damn indestructible magnet."

"I can still hear you", the ball muttered.

"Good!"

Locke sighed.

"Hopefully it isn't as bad as we think it is and Spectre has already gotten rid of them. Let's just roll this piece of modern art into my lab and I'll see what I can do."

"Yes, I know that kind of material but it is very sturdy", the blacksmith the two handcuffed Echidnas had paid a visit said. "Normal fire isn't hot enough for it to become softer and workable and as long as it's hard my tools would break before I can even scratch it. I would suggest asking the fire ants for help. How did you even manage to get handcuffed with normal bracelets in first place?"

"Kinky sex games", was Dimitri's quick answer.

The smith gawked at them and the Guardian who still had looked pissed a second ago stared back with the same wide eyes.

"What?" Dimitri asked. "Today I already had the pleasure to have your ass in my face so why not push it a bit further."

Spectre's eyes narrowed.

"Do you mind if I borrow one of your tools?" he asked with a sugary sweet voice and a look in his eyes that screamed for murder. Without awaiting an answer he grabbed a hammer and slammed it against Dimitri's head. "Thanks a lot. We might now go to the fire ants - provided that this bastard survives the trip. If not it's okay as well because then I can at least cut his hand off without having to listen to his whining." With that he stomped out dragging the unconscious Grandmaster behind him.

The smith stared after them for a little longer wondering what the hell he just had witnessed.

'And I thought my brother was making things up when he told me about his work at the EST and their permanent problems with Guardians', he thought.

"Ugh, my head..." Dimitri groaned when he awoke in the empty side street Spectre had dragged him into since too many people had kept staring at them.

"Maybe you shouldn't go binge drinking anymore before you have sex with me", Spectre huffed, crossed his arms and with that gesture dragged Dimitri up a bit.

"You know, I'm dangling right in front of your crotch."

Spectre quickly dropped his arms and Dimitri fell on his butt.

"Stop with those damn jokes. You aren't Sojourner."

"No, unlike him I'm successful. But what I said to the smith was the first excuse I could think of. Tell me, what else I should have told him. That we were exchanging fashion accessories before they became super magnets all out of sudden? That would have sounded girly."

"Says the one with the baby blue headband, the fuzzy legwarmers and the leggings. Why do you even dress like that and go to dance lessons anyways?"

Dimitri sighed.

"Well, with relatives like those surrounding you all the time you sometimes need a controlled kind of craziness if you don't want to go bonkers for real. I know how ridiculous I might look dancing in a group of girls in that outfit but at least it's funny and if people laugh at me then I at least can laugh with them and both sides had their fun."

"I know that feeling", Spectre said. "If I wouldn't feel so embarrassed afterwards I could even enjoy the cappuccino rushes." He quickly shook his head. "But instead of discussing family problems we at first need to get rid of those handcuffs. Let's go to the fire ants and you try not to crack any more of these stupid jokes."

"Alright, I promise to be no more pain in your ass."

"Dimitri!"

Alright, let's switch to something more intelligent.

A pirate suddenly grinned into the camera.

"Ooooohhhhh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea..."

Not that, I meant Haven!

"Alright kids, I'm back!" Charmy's grinning face was seen on absolutely every screen in Haven. "So who wants me to show you how to create a funny Christmas decoration out of Thunderhawk's hair?"

"Nobody", Sabre said slightly annoyed and took the camera out of Charmy's hands. "How often do I have to tell you that Haven's surveillance system is nothing to play with?"

"But Sojourner said he always has great fun with it", Charmy pouted. "How else could he have fun with a device that normally just shows the landscapes of Angel Island?"

"I think Sojourner's idea of fun and yours differ gravely... By the way, where did you even get Thunderhawk's hair from?"

"I thought he had too long bangs anyways so when he took a nap I cut them off."

Sabre closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Child, let me give you a word of advice. As soon as Thunderhawk wakes up, finds his hair way shorter than normal and finds the video file of you waving his hair in front of the camera - run for your life."

The bee eagerly nodded. "Okay, got it."

Sabre sighed. Did that kid even take his advice serious? Giving him a lecture was like talking to a wall - or to Athair. Yes, in some ways having Charmy as a guest in Haven was like having to watch over a second Athair with the exception that Charmy was still a child and Athair ... well, he was Athair.

"Where are the other Chaotix, except for Vector I mean?" the Guardian asked giving up lecturing the young bee. "It's their task to have an eye on you after all and not mine."

"Mighty is probably in the kitchen, eating the fridge."

"He is doing what?!"

"Eating the fridge. At least that's what he told me when he left."

"Oh dear... You stay here and don't touch the camera anymore."

He quickly left the room, ran through some corridors and finally reached the kitchen. To his relief Mighty had probably nearly emptied it but at least not taken a bite off the fridge itself. The armadillo nearly crawled into the fridge trying to reach even the last bit of long forgotten food in its depths.

"That thing is a bit mouldy and smells like old socks. He, Espy, do you think it's still eatable?"

"Eliminate it", Espio replied. For a short moment he looked up from the parts of his coffee machine puzzle (Locke still hadn't repaired it and Thunderhawk had simply carried all of the parts back to the kitchen) and stared at Mighty. "Uhm, by eliminating I meant you should throw it away and not eat it."

"Oops..."

"Amazing how fast things can rot in there. It might not even be half a year ago that we put in the first few things - and immediately forgot we had them still in there whenever someone bought new food", Sabre commented and went to the cupboards to search for a cup. After having to repeatedly search for Charmy for the past three hours only to find him playing with another one of Haven's electronic and very sensitive devices each time he felt like he could really need a cup of tea. "Does anyone else want to have some tea?"

"Oh yes, me too", Espio said.

"With sugar", Mighty said.

"And some drops of lemon juice."

"With milk but only a bit. Too much milk causes flatulence."

"Milk mixed with lemon always causes these strange white flakes that are swimming around in your tea then."

"Best is if you first put in the sugar, then the tea, then the milk and then the lemon."

"Uhm ... okay ..." Sabre said a bit surprised that two guys had immediately happily agreed to drink tea with him.

"I hope Charmy hasn't caused too much trouble in the meantime", Espio said. "We left him with Sojourner who said he wanted to show him a bit of his DVD collection."

"Well, in that case he had two Ps to choose from", Sabre said with a crooked smile. "Hopefully Sojourner thought the Powerpuff Girls were rather suitable for a young bee than the porn collection. But obviously Charmy seemed to prefer neither and was raving through Haven for a while. Hopefully he..." He stopped talking when he heard loud noises on the corridor sounding as if huge balls were bouncing through it. Seconds later Athair was hopping pass the door on a big hop ball directly followed by Charmy on another ball. Athair let out a deep nasally sigh. "Looks like someone has found an ally..."

"Do you even know how ridiculous we looked? The people were staring at us as if we were a bunch of idiots", Spectre growled after they were finally out of the city.

"Would you have preferred to hold hands the whole time?" Dimitri huffed. "My idea to cover those bracelets was great."

"We looked like freaking retards!"

Dimitri's idea of covering was to wrap his leg warmers around their wrists and then both holding on to his head band so it wouldn't have looked strange why they were always sticking together.

"We're in fire ant territory soon", Spectre silently told himself. "Then I will finally be able to get rid of him."

"It's hot", Dimitri whined.

"Well, that's the problem with the Lava Reef Zone", Spectre replied. "Especially when the sun is beating down like that."

"I'm tired. Carry me." With that the Grandmaster jumped into his nephew's arms, placed his head onto his shoulder and although the sun had a nice beat and the position of the one arm connected to Spectre's was more than uncomfortable he decided to take a nap. Spectre could have dropped him but for the moment was so perplexed that he caught him as good as possible with one free arm.

"W-what the heck...? You can't sleep now. Get off me!"

He loosened his grip and tried to shove Dimitri away as far as possible.

"But I want a rest", Dimitri griped like a toddler, threw himself to the ground and sulkily crossed his arms - at least as far as it was able to cross arms with Spectre hanging on one of them.

"Fine, stay pissed", Spectre growled and continued marching, dragging Dimitri behind him like a pull-along toy.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop that crap! The floor is ruining my expensive gymnastic trousers."

"Not my problem!"

The fire ants stared too when two bickering Echidnas, chained together by bracelets (at least they had lost the fuzzy legwarmers) and one pulled along by the other passed them by.

"What are you even trying to find? There are dozens of gawking ants so just ask any of them", Dimitri shouted. "Are you doing that on purpose so you can ruin my clothes even more?"

"No, I'm trying to find someone who knows the Guardians and Legionnaires well so it will be less embarrassing to explain the whole thing."

The first to be found was Archimedes and Spectre told him the same that he also had told Dimitri - that it was a present idea by Athair. He wasn't sure if Archimedes believed this version of the story but he didn't care since the whole point only was to get rid of the bracelets and not to convince anyone.

"I'm sorry to tell you", the fire ant said after closely examining their magnetic accessories, "but these things can't be destroyed by any of us at all. We would burn your arms to ashes and it would still be intact. Well, yes, once your arms are gone the bracelets will fall off too but I doubt this is what you wanted."

"Thanks anyways. Guess we just have to go back and find someone else", Spectre sighed. He sounded calm but inside he felt like he really wanted to kick someone to the moon - preferably Dimitri.

Their way back they mostly spent in silence - under a sun that had 'da beat' - until they came to a fork in the road. Dimitri took the way leading back to the city, Spectre the path to the forest. They were jerked back but at least kept balance this time.

"And where on Mobius do you think you're going?" Dimitri asked. "I thought we were on our way back."

"I am going back but I don't see a reason to walk through the whole city again as long as we have no clue where to go next. Let's just circle around it until we know."

"But ... but you don't want to go into that forest, do you?"

"There's no reason to steer clear of a forest as well. Don't tell me you are afraid of trees."

"No but an awful monster is living in there."

For a moment Spectre stared at the Grandmaster not sure if he should laugh or cry.

"A monster... You just reminded me of Athair but I think he would be happy to see the monster of the forest. Seriously, are you a grown-up Echidna or a little puggle? The only monster this forest will ever see is me and now come on."

He continued walking and unless he wanted to fall and be dragged over the floor again Dimitri had no other choice but to stumble after him though he wouldn't stop screaming.

"No, please don't drag me into the forest! I will do anything but don't force me in there!"

"If there ever was a monster then you probably scared it away with your screaming", Spectre grumbled and looked around. The sun was shining brightly through the treetops, there was a light breeze and except for Dimitri it was very calm in the woods - maybe a bit too calm but probably Dimitri had scared every living being within the next mile away. Someone who was afraid of such scenery was also afraid of little kittens.

"Fuck off!" Spectre hissed at the tentacle that tried to grab his waist. Slenderechidna recoiled and sneaked away with big steps. He knew that voice, he knew it very well, and he didn't want to risk yet another torturing bathing session.

"See, everything is calm and quiet. So where is your monster?" Spectre asked. That fleeing tentacle thing he had just seen definitely didn't count as one. The real dreadful monsters normally didn't run away when someone cursed at them. Moreover tentacle things belonged to the weird part of Sojourner's DVD collection rather than a creepy forest.

"Spectre..."

Hearing that whiny tone again made the dark Echidna bare his teeth.

"What now?!" he shot.

"I need to pee..."

Well, that was a problem. He couldn't tell him to just go because of obvious reasons.

"Does that have to be now? Can't you hold it back for a while longer?"

"I'm already waiting for half a day and I feel like I'm going to explode. No, I can't hold it back any longer. And I also can't pee as easy as you."

"...What is that supposed to mean."

"Well, you have this long cloak, a cloud of smoke - you have your privacy wherever you go. A walking toilet. You can pee wherever you are standing and then walk away as if nothing ever happened as long as you only keep your poker face."

Spectre's eye twitched.

"Don't you think somebody would notice if I left a puddle behind wherever I had been standing? Just shut up and finally empty your bladder."

He turned away as far as possible.

"Uhm, Spectre, can you please come back a little bit? I'm not left-handed and it's a bit hard to..."

"MY HAND IS NOT GETTING ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR DICK!"

The last few remaining birds hurriedly left the forest.

Bang! Clang! Dalannnng!

Thunderhawk stared at the wall those noises had come from.

"Sounded like the god of thunder is paying us a visit..."

"Rather the gods of chaos", Sabre meant, knelt down and took off one of the lids to Haven's ventilation system. "We have been searching you for quite a while now but never would have expected you here. What are you doing in there?"

"We are playing Sandy Claws", Charmy groaned and tried to struggle forth from under Athair. "He is Sandy, I am Claws."

"Sandy ... Santa Claus? In the middle of July you get the idea to play Santa Claus?"

"Yes, you can never start with presents too early", Athair said after he had gotten out of the shaft as well, dragged forth a bag, searched in it for a while and pushed a pink stuffed rabbit into Sabre's hands.

"Santa Claus in the ventilation shafts?" Thunderhawk asked and earned a blue toy elephant for his question.

"Normally Santa needs a chimney and that was the closest to a chimney that we had", Athair said. "And now excuse us. We need to deliver some other presents."

"Can we really let them walk around Haven on their own?" Thunderhawk asked. "So far they might not have destroyed anything but I don't trust them."

A few corridors away they heard them loudly singing. "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robing laid an egg, the Batmobil lost a wheel, the Joker got away, hey!"

Sabre made a sound somewhere between chuckling and coughing.

"I'll send Espio and Mighty after them, okay?"

Impatiently Spectre tapped his foot.

"How long can someone need to pee? Can't you hurry up a bit?"

"Well, it's a bit hard when I'm feeling watched."

"I'm turning away as far as I can."

"No, it's not because of you. I'm talking about that little creeper."

Spectre quickly turned his head to have a glance at what Dimitri meant then turned away again.

"It's just a chipmunk. Ignore it."

"It's staring at me."

"Probably because you are peeing on the food it collected. Now stop panicking and come to an end."

"It's coming closer, way too close. That's it, I'm outta here. I don't want a chipmunk in my pants."

Spectre wasn't prepared for Dimitri trying to get away that fast and he was jerked back but before he could try to get after him or even regain balance the panicking Grandmaster had turned into the other direction and crashed into him. The chipmunk used its chance and jumped onto the pile of struggling Echidnas.

"AAAHHHH! GET IT OFF ME!"

"Ouch! Stop flailing around!"

Dimitri finally managed to get back to his feet and ran away, this time it was Spectre to be dragged over the ground.

Slendy was startled when something very loud rushed pass his hiding place. He risked a quick glance to see the two Echidnas again, one of them was running and wildly flailing, the other was surfing the ground lying on his stomach.

"GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!"

"Dimitri, stop! The chipmunk jumped off five minutes ago!"

Slendy drew back his head again. Whatever these crazy beings were doing, it was better to stay far, far away.

"Merry July-mas", Athair greeted happily when he and Charmy stormed Locke's lab. A bit later Mighty dressed in a green elf costume and Espio followed.

"Gee, thanks. A Barbie purse - what I always had wished for", Vector sighed when Athair tried to hang the purse over one of his nostrils. Meanwhile his complete head was out of the bracelet ball, a few broken bracelets were lying on the ground. "Hey, Espio, you aren't wearing your costume. Why so out of character?"

"I was able to convince them that I am playing Santa Clause's bodyguard and that bodyguards look exactly the way I do", Espio replied. He turned to Knuckles. "You are making slow progress as I see."

The youngest Guardian shrugged. "It's something but it's taking so much time. At that speed it will really be Christmas before we get him out of there."

"We also are not sure if they become weaker when we try to rip them off often enough or if they are losing strength over time anyways, no matter what we are doing", Locke said and struggled free from a ten metre long scarf.

"Why are giving me an empty glass bowl?" Knuckles asked.

"That's a goldfish bowl", Charmy said. "We haven't found a fish in Haven though so I will give that to you a while later. You will love my goldfish. I will call it Alfredo."

"Well, thanks..." Knuckles said unsure what else he could have said.

"Can you please strangle yourself? I feel too sore to do it", Spectre groaned. "Damn, how can other Echidnas even live without rapid healing and nearly limitless energy?"

Feeling completely pooped the two Echidnas were lying on a grass field somewhere in the middle of the wood.

"Holy crap, the sun is already setting", Dimitri suddenly shouted and jumped up, ripping Spectre off the ground a bit as well which caused the dark Echidna to groan even more.

"Stop those sudden movements! Yes, it will be night soon, so what? Let's just stay where we are, get some sleep and tomorrow we can still try to find another solution."

"Sleeping here? In the dark deep forest? With the..."

"Oh please, stop that idiotic monster story."

"Well, actually I meant the chipmunk but yes, you are right, the monster is somewhere out there too."

"Fine, wouldn't be the first time I am spending the night on a tree. I'm not sure about the chipmunk but let's just say the monster can't climb, okay?"

The night didn't bring too much rest though because Dimitri repeatedly fell off the tree - and of course dragged Spectre with him.

When Spectre opened his eyes and blinked the morning light away he was glad that he was still sitting up the tree. He rubbed his eyes then he noticed that the weight of an arm bound to his left wrist was gone. Quickly he looked around. Dimitri had fallen off again, remained lying where he had landed and had continued sleeping there. Spectre could have cried out with joy but he didn't do it and instead simply enjoyed the feeling of being able to glide down a tree again. He gave Dimitri a kick - just a light one since he was too happy for more punishment at the moment - to wake him up.

"Ugh, are we being eaten by the chipmunk? If not then let me sleep."

"No, but I wanted to tell you I finally lost an appendage."

Dimitri blinked a few time and it needed a while until he realised what Spectre meant but then he jumped up with a cry of joy, hugged and kissed Spectre and avoided the blast the dark Guardian had sent out in a reflex of shock. Cheering he ran deeper into the forest until he realized where he was and with a little scream ran out of it again. For a little while Spectre watched him shaking his head then he found it was time to leave Dimitri raving through the forest alone and return to Haven.

Thunderhawk screwed up his nose when he saw Spectre walking through Haven his robe still muddy, full of leaves and torn at some parts.

"Father, you look like a hobo. Where have you been the whole night? Have you slept on the trash dump? I thought you only wanted to deliver one of the bracelets to Dimitri."

"I appreciate it that you have been so worried about my well-being in the last 24 hours", the dark Echidna huffed. For a little while he stared at his son. "Nice haircut by the way. A bit short but I'm glad they aren't dangling into your eyes anymore. You looked like an emo with that." He turned around and continued his search for Locke.

With a flabbergasted stare Thunderhawk reached up a hand to touch his bangs.

"What the hell… WHO WAS THAT?!"

Spectre found Locke in his lab, surrounded by hundreds of damaged bracelets. The younger Guardian opened his mouth when he saw Spectre's tattered and muddy attire but before he could say something Spectre asked, "Did you know these bracelets are becoming magnetic as soon as you put them on and go near another one?"

"They normally don't do that but yesterday we had to free Vector from all these bracelets you see lying around on the floor. They were practically glued to him. Thank goodness the magnetic effect wore off after several hours."

"Vector..." Spectre said sounding not too happy.

"From what I have heard he had played around with one of the bracelets and reprogrammed them. I have no freaking idea how he managed to do that though or else I would have been able to solve the problem faster", Locke explained sounding lightly worried. He didn't like that look on his great-grandfather's face at all.

"That robe and a bath can wait. I might be out for a while longer", Spectre said when he turned to leave. "Be a good boy and tell the others I'm out on a hunting mission."

He left the room but before Locke could do more but asking himself what the heck had even happened to Spectre his head appeared in the doorframe again.

"Oh, and ask around if someone needs a bag made of crocodile skin."

With that he was gone and left a lightly confused Locke behind.


End file.
